Just ordered a 7970 - how to configure?

[topbanana]

Installed it now my PC won't power up. Won't power up with the old card back in it either. It'll probably end up being thrown out of the window this evening...

 

[thenewoc]

I had some problems with my system recognising that I had actually installed the card and in the end found that resetting the BIOS sorted it out. You might want to take a note of your BIOS settings first though if you choose to try that.

 

[thenewoc]

Just had some responses from AMD regarding driver installation so thought I'd paste them in here for others.

In response to my 1st question:
I'd like to take advantage of the latest AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta7 Driver but I'm unsure whether I should install the AMD Catalyst Software Suite (12.10) and Catalyst Application Profiles (12.10 CAP1) first?

The 12.11Beta is a stand-alone installation, so you won't need to worry about installing the 12.10 suite first. What we do recommend is that after downloading the desired suite (in your case, 12.11Beta), after selecting your language during installation, choose Uninstall->Express. This will remove the existing drivers and will help to ensure that there are no issues with corrupted or conflicting installations on your system. Once the uninstall has finished, reboot and run the file again, choosing Install->Express after selecting your language. The 12.10 CAPs are installed in the 12.11Beta already, the 12.11 is just the 12.10 suite with multiple performance tweaks to see what can be done with the card in terms of game performance, as well as initial attempts to resolve outstanging issues that the Engineers have remedied (like some fluctuating clock speeds in certain CrossFire configurations, which are present in the 12.11Beta7 release.)
So to summarize, you don't have to install 12.10 and the 12.10 CAPs, as these are both in the 12.11Beta, the Beta just features additional tweaks and patches that are not official yet, but do offer better performance for the majority of users.
If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reply to this e-mail directly and I will try to provide any additional information that you may require. Thank you for contacting AMD!

In response to this follow up question:
I also should have asked about the significance of there being two 12.11 Beta7 downloads as one mentions "with .NET 4 support". Does this mean that it will add .NET 4 if your PC doesn't have it or that it provides features that rely on the .NET 4 being present on the system? I am using Windows 8 Pro which I believe has .NET 4.5 and think this is meant to be backward compatible with previous .NET Frameworks. Therefore could you advise please which of these would be most suitable for Windows 8 64bit?

The .Net4 support download is for systems that have either missing or incomplete .Net frameworks. Our software will use .Net 2, 3, 4 or 4.5 to install, so as long as you have your existing .Net framework up-to-date, you won't need to worry about the .Net4 support, it's just in there just in case the end-user doesn't have any .Net on their system, as we found that .Net4 was the easiest to deploy with our drivers.

So to summarize, don't worry about the .Net4 support in the Beta link, it's just for systems that have no .Net, or outdated .Net. As long as you run Windows Update and install any .Net framework updates that are outstanding, it won't be an issue at all.

 

[Spook187]

12.11 latest beta, job done.

Always the latest driver.

Latest beta is broken on some games,so no.